


OT(P)

by sabinelagrande



Series: Linguists In Love [1]
Category: Stargate: Atlantis
Genre: Alternate Universe - College/University, Established Relationship, Languages and Linguistics, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2009-07-20
Updated: 2009-07-20
Packaged: 2017-10-06 14:25:09
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 314
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/54644
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/sabinelagrande/pseuds/sabinelagrande
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>For the set [+linguist], [+dork] is unmarked.</p>
            </blockquote>





	OT(P)

Rodney's got this bad habit of writing on John's papers. Sometimes they're notes for John; often they're snarky comments about the author, the data, the informants, or the sociolinguistic project in general; more than once it's been a grocery list, which has led to John navigating the Safeway using Asif Agha- but he's learned that if he wants to keep something pristine, he'd better put it in his filing cabinet.

So it's no surprise that his well-worn photocopy of Bell 2001 is laying on top of the usual mess of papers on his desk, carelessly tossed on top of his notes like it's just spontaneously surfaced from the linguistic morass that is their office. He picks it up, expecting it to be covered in red ink; but all there is is a little bit of notation, written up in the corner of the first page, next to the coffee stain. It reads:
    
    
    /♥/ → [♥] / RM ___ JS #  
        →  ∅  / elsewhere

Rodney comes in just as he reads it; he peeks over John's shoulder, blushing a little and trying to act like he's not looking.

"Reverting to rule writing?" John says, acting shocked. "I'm hurt."

"But if I'd done the OT analysis, I would have had to list all the likely candidates and explain why they weren't suitable, and that would've taken forever," Rodney points out. "You violate the Hair-Blonde constraint anyway, so-"

John wraps his arms around Rodney's waist. "I get it."

He pulls John close, his eyes locked onto John's lips. "Besides, everybody knows OT is on its way out."

"But I just learned it," John complains.

"Yes, well, I'm just now figuring out attention to speech, so we're even."

"And we're all thankful for it," John says, grinning, and Rodney rolls his eyes at the pun. "Final position, huh?"

"Well, _obviously_," Rodney huffs.

He kisses the corner of Rodney's mouth, right where it curves downward. "Cool."

**Author's Note:**

> 1\. The notation is a phonological rule that should be read (loosely): "Love becomes love between RM and JS, when JS is in word-final position, and is deleted everywhere else." And it is technically incorrect, but Rule of Cute, yo.  
> 2\. By Bell 2001, obvs. I mean "Back in Style: Reworking Audience Design", which John would be all about.  
> 3\. The attention to speech approach is a model that states that the more attention a speaker is paying to hir speech, the less vernacular and more careful it becomes. And we all agree that Rodney could stand to pay a little more attention, amirite?  
> 4\. OT is [optimality theory](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Optimality_theory), which I cannot hope to explain.


End file.
